Welcome to the Family
by xXxHarleyGirlxXx
Summary: Batman and his Bat family are the legacy of Gotham City that some fear, some respect and some despise. Kendal Corey is a college freshman, who one fateful day, discovers the secret that one of her professors is hiding: Professor Barbara Gordon is Batgirl. After dawning the cowl once Kendal will be asked to do so again. Will the role of vigilante be too much for her?


A/N: So just a quick note, this story is lightly based off the the New 52 reboot. Thanks for checking it out! I hope you enjoy :D I'm open to constructive criticism :) Thanks again!

Welcome to the Family

Prologue

Pain... White hot and relentless. It was all Kendal could feel as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. One hit after another, they just kept coming. When they finally stopped the crying girl tried to get away, shakily crawling away from the mad man. The brunette felt a solid blow connect with her upper back and the scream that erupted from her lips was so loud that there was no way someone had gone without hearing. Right?

"Please! Please just stop," she begged, her cries making it obvious she was in agonizing pain.

"Begging will do nothing for you, and you can scream all you want. No one is going to hear you," the lunatic hissed in her ear.

With one last swing of the crowbar he knocked the young woman out cold, spitting on her before he walked away mumbling to himself. It had to have been hours before she finally woke. As she forced herself to sit up she held her head and fought to keep her tears back.

'It hurts... so much,' she thought to herself as her eyes tried to focus in the dim light of the room.

Kendal's vision kept going blurry but when she could finally see straight her eyes widened as she realized the door to the room was wide open. The young brunette woman couldn't believe her eyes, this had to be a dream... There was know way that man would leave the door wide open like that. She shook her head, uncaring, she just wanted to get the hell away from him. The woman hobbled out of the room but she didn't make it very far before collapsing onto the cold, hard floor. It was too difficult to tell how long she had been in his captivity, but she had had very little to drink and almost nothing to eat save for a few tiny pieces of hard bread. Her body was weak and broken from the beatings.

'I have to get away!'

Trying to give herself encouraging thoughts Kendal began to crawl, dead set on getting out of the madman's clutches. The front door to the small condemned house was no longer on it's hinges. It had clearly been ripped off the wall some time ago, the door replaced with boards across the doorway. There was a gap between the boards and the floor at the bottom of the doorway. If she sucked her stomach in, she might be able to crawl through it, as long as her cape didn't get caught she would be home free.

Squeezing under the boards turned out to be the easy part; as she tried to get down the ten or so steps she slipped. The rain soaked wood proved difficult to get a grip on and she tumbled to bottom of the stairs, trying not to cry out in pain as all her injuries screamed at her. All she could do for the moment was let the rain fall on her bloodied body. With a renewed hope when she saw a car pass by, Kendal began to crawl across the lawn. With tears of joy running down her cheeks she began to thank  
whatever higher power might exist that she had gotten away.

"You thought you could get away from me that easily," the hideous voice spoke through the rain.

Kendal's blood ran colder than the rain that fell upon her as the worn and blood stained cuffs of a pair of purple pants came into her field of vision.

"No," she screamed, trying to get to her feet.

The lunatic took a handful of her brown hair and yanked her to her feet.

"Amazing isn't it," he asked with a devilish chuckle. "How quickly your emotions can change."

The Joker threw his knee up into her broken ribs before slamming her roughly against the unforgiving ground. Kendal crumpled, holding her midsection as if to protect herself from further punishment.

"You think you have the right to wear that cowl?!"

The clown's words were beginning to sound far away and muffled as her consciousness began to fade.

"None of you have the right... None but him..."


End file.
